Each November, Transgender Awareness Month honors the visibility, courage, and leadership of transgender and gender-diverse people — and reminds us that this work has never been more urgent, or more shared.
This year, we enter the month with both pride and humility: pride in the resilience of our community, and humility in recognizing the pain many are carrying — including pain connected to recent decisions at Fenway Health. We know that for some, those decisions caused harm and mistrust. We hold that truth with care and responsibility. Our task now is to listen, to learn, and to rebuild trust through meaningful action — alongside, not apart from, the communities we serve.
History teaches that progress has never been linear. During the civil-rights movement, during the AIDS epidemic, and through decades of LGBTQ+ struggle, people have faced backlash and loss — yet found ways to transform pain into purpose. As many social justice advocates, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have noted, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It only bends, though, when people — and institutions — do the bending together.
What This Month Means: Awareness • Education • Affirmation
Transgender and gender-diverse people have always embodied courage — choosing authenticity in the face of misunderstanding, creating community amid adversity, and building beauty out of struggle.
Courage isn’t only individual; it’s institutional. Many organizations — schools, clinics, and community groups — have had to evolve rapidly to meet the moment: adapting policies, training staff, and restructuring systems so that care, education, and belonging remain accessible when laws and politics shift beneath us. Flexibility is not weakness; it is resilience in action.
To honor that spirit:
- Remember history: From Lucy Hicks Anderson to Louis Graydon Sullivan, from Miss Major Griffin-Gracy to Rita Hester, generations have turned grief into organizing and forged networks of care that still sustain us today.
- Uplift education and truth: Sharing stories, art, and lived experience; confronting misinformation with compassion and fact; and fostering environments where people feel safe enough to learn, change, and act.
- Protect safety and dignity: With more than 1,000 anti-trans bills introduced across the country this year, awareness alone is insufficient. The work ahead demands sustained advocacy, creativity, and shared accountability.
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR)
On November 20, we remember the lives lost to anti-transgender violence and renew our commitment to ending it.
TDOR began here in Massachusetts, following the 1998 murder of Rita Hester in Allston. Twenty-six years later, the tradition has grown worldwide — a night of mourning, resistance, and truth-telling. In 2024, at least 32 transgender and gender-diverse people were killed in the United States; 78% were people of color. Each name represents a life of joy, talent, and love.
As we remember, we draw strength from those who came before us — leaders who taught that grief and action must coexist. Audre Lorde reminded us that “Your silence will not protect you.” She wrote those words at a time when the government turned away from a public-health crisis, and when communities had to create their own systems of care. Her message still resonates: silence and neutrality are not safety — solidarity is.
Today, we again face coordinated efforts to roll back rights and erase protections for transgender and gender-diverse people. New federal actions have weakened nondiscrimination safeguards in healthcare, education, and housing, and proposed regulations threaten to narrow access to essential services. These challenges reach far beyond Fenway, and they demand a united, pragmatic response. Our focus — and our responsibility — is to ensure that, no matter what happens at the federal level, trans and gender-diverse people in Massachusetts continue to receive care, protection, and respect.
Why This Month Matters
For transgender and gender-diverse people, this month holds a range of experiences: visibility and community, rest and reflection, grief and healing
For allies, it is an invitation to act with empathy and courage.
For institutions — including ours — it is a call to reflection and accountability. This month asks every organization to examine not only what it says, but what it does: how policies are shaped, how trust is rebuilt, and how we show up even when it’s hard.
Ways to Take Action
- Attend or host events that center trans voices and history.
- Support local organizations providing housing, healthcare, or mutual aid.
- Re-examine policies in your workplace or school for inclusivity and safety.
- On November 20, join a TDOR vigil to remember those lost and renew your commitment to justice.
- Speak up against misinformation, misgendering, or discrimination — daily acts of solidarity accumulate into cultural change.
A Note of Hope
We know that trust is rebuilt through sustained action and partnership. We are listening to our community, working with others to protect care access, and doing the hard work of repair.
Transgender Awareness Month and the Day of Remembrance remind us that we are part of something larger — a living, evolving movement for human dignity. Together, we keep bending that moral arc a little further toward justice.